Sunday, January 20, 2008

Things that Made a Difference

Chapter 3 of A Tale of Two E1s


The author training to climb E1 copyright JennThe author training for E1 in Bishop California

So again with the benefit of hindsight what had been different? Well some of it is mentioned explicitly above. I had warmed up and done a bit of bouldering on the same rock I was going to climb. Although I wasn’t psyched about doing the climb, I thought that it was possible and had certainly not written off my chances before I had set rubber to rock. I had picked a route that played more to my strengths, a technical grade that I was comfortable with rather than harder moves with better protection. I had thought about the whole climb and not just focussed on a crux; I guess it helped that there isn’t that distinct of a crux section, just sustained climbing at around the same grade. This sustained standard meant that the first few moves got me engaged and thinking about the climbing rather than worrying about a tricky section to come. I didn’t get overwhelmed by the whole route; instead I just tried to hit mini-goals: stick this next move, get up to that jug 3m above and so on. Crucially, I managed to make myself focus on the climbing again when thoughts of success began to prematurely enter my head.

As for the rest of what had happened in the intervening 13 months, I had put in some mileage at a lower grade. I did so many Hard Severes that I began to believe that I owned the grade and there was no HS in the UK that I couldn’t climb. While you might think that being solid at HS isn’t much help for E1s I think it is. It is good to feel that you have an absolute floor to your climbing, if I can climb any HS, surely I can climb at least some climbs that suit my style and are harder than that. I had also done quite a lot of VSs and, while maybe not solid at this grade, this also helped. Who knows, maybe if I hadn’t kept my head together on the fourth pitch of Adam Rib (HS 4b) then I wouldn’t have done the same on Seams the Same.

But I have left out what is probably the most important factor. In my opinion what really got me to be able to climb E1 was bouldering. I had done tons of this between the two attempts. Most pertinently, I had spent two weeks in Bishop, California. Here, although I didn’t set the world alight grade-wise, I got a lot stronger and the highball nature of many of the problems meant both that I developed route-type endurance and a head for being high up.

This was consolidated by more bouldering in North Wales and the Peak. The day before Seams the Same was spent at The Sheep Pen high on the side of Ogwen valley. Here I climbed problems from V0 to V3 (and sadly fell off V4s). When you have bouldered as much as I had, UK 5b moves begin to feel pretty easy, even if there are a lot of them - they are only V0+ right? Bouldering had got me used to regularly sticking UK 6a moves and I guess that is a good place to be if failing to stick a UK 5b one would result in you decking.

So I will end this rather lengthy saga with a recommendation from a old trad climber who has a liking for easy mountain routes. If you want to lead harder, buy a bouldering mat and a beanie!

Continued in: Epilogue

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